If all goes well, Vermonters will be able to sign up for health insurance and register to vote at the same time.
Secretary of State Jim Condos announced Monday that the state’s health insurance marketplace, scheduled to be functional by October, will double as a “voter registration agency.”
Only California and New York have taken the same step.
Condos sent an official letter announcing the arrangement to Mark Larson, the commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access. Condos said his staff plans to train the employees in charge of the exchange and help them sift through the paperwork. Since his office will help out, adding this feature to the exchange shouldn’t be a heavy lift, according to Condos.
There’s already a federal law — the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) — that designates state agencies providing public assistance as voter registration agencies.
There’s an ongoing debate, Condos said, about whether that law applies to the state exchanges that are cropping up as a result of the Affordable Care Act. It’s also unclear, he said, if NVRA will apply to the exchanges in states where the federal government is setting them up.
“The important thing is that, here in Vermont it was clear to my office that the exchange was being set up in a way that brings it under the purview of the NVRA,” Condos said.
Roughly 462,000 Vermonters were registered to vote in the 2012 election. The state’s total population is about 620,000. It’s not clear what percentage of residents who are eligible to vote have registered to do so. In an email, Condos explained that “A significant portion of those not registered are under 18 years of age. However, there are still eligible potential voters to be registered.”
Asked if the exchange could bring in a large number of new registered voters, Condos responded, “It is difficult to say but the point is to access as many people who are qualified to register to vote. Voting is fundamental to our democracy and all those who are eligible should have the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right.”
In California, the plan has prompted some partisan bickering.
The Sacramento Bee reported in May that some of the state’s Republicans were resisting the designation of the exchange as a voter registry agency.
The story quotes the Republican leader in the Senate, Bob Huff, saying, “It does beg the question about whether it’s a systematic attempt to try to empower people more predisposed to vote their way, and that would be concerning to us.”
California’s secretary of state is a Democrat.
Allen Gilbert, Vermont ACLU executive director, is quoted in a press release from the Secretary of State’s office, giving his nod of approval. “It’s great that the Secretary of State’s Office is on top of this, and that the Department of Vermont Health Access is working with Secretary Condos to make this happen. It shows the state’s commitment to voting rights.”
Correction: Due to a typo, this story originally misstated the number of registered voters in November 2012. That number is 462,000.
